General Mote Applications

You could embed motes in bridges when you pour the concrete. The mote could have a sensor on it that can detect the salt concentration within the concrete. Then once a month you could drive a truck over the bridge that sends a powerful magnetic field into the bridge. The magnetic field would allow the motes, which are buried within the concrete of the bridge, to power on and transmit the salt concentration. Salt (perhaps from deicing or ocean spray) weakens concrete and corrodes the steel rebar that strengthens the concrete. Salt sensors would let bridge maintenance personnel gauge how much damage salt is doing. Other possible sensors embedded into the concrete of a bridge might detect vibration, stress, temperature swings, cracking, etc., all of which would help maintenance personnel spot problems long before they become critical.

You could connect sensors to a mote that can monitor the condition of machinery -- temperature, number of revolutions, oil level, etc. and log it in the mote's memory. Then, when a truck drives by, the mote could transmit all the logged data. This would allow detailed maintenance records to be kept on machinery (for example, in an oil field), without maintenance personnel having to go measure all of those parameters themselves.

You could attach motes to the water meters or power meters in a neighborhood. The motes would log power and water consumption for a customer. When a truck drives by, the motes get a signal from the truck and they send their data. This would allow a person to read all the meters in a neighborhood very easily, simply by driving down the street.

Ideas for Sensor Networks

Using a mobile robot and the humidity sensors on the motes, detect a water spill to simulate a hazardous substance.

Connect an IR range finder to one of the ADC channels on one of the motes and place it at the door of the lab to detect when someone enters or leaves the lab.

Develop a LabView interface to read, display, and log data from the sensor network through either a mote connected directly to the computer (USB) or to the tmote gateway (TCP/IP)

Create a "data ferry" with a mobile robot with a mote and perhaps two independent mote sensor networks. Individual motes in each network collect and log sensor data and the mobile robot moves within range to connect to the network and collect all available data. Each mote only has 10kB of RAM, so only a limited amount of data may be collected by each mote until old data points are overwritten.

Potential Robotic Platform: iRobot Create

iRobot, maker of the Roomba and Scooba vacuum cleaner robots has just announced the release of the platform for research, hobbyist, and educational use called the iRobot Create. This is the same platform as the Roomba but without the vacuum cleaner assemblies which allows for a payload such as computers, sensors, manipulators, etc. Robot magazine has an excellent article which gives an overview of the platform and displays some of the projects that have already been implemented on it.

At a cost of only $129 for a single basic platform or $999 for a 10-pack, this platform looks to be an excellent candidate for the MARHES lab especially for performing research in mobile sensor networks. Because the Create platform is essentially a Roomba, it is compatible with all Roomba accessories including battery packs and chargers, the virtual wall units, and remote controls which allows for replacement or upgrade part availability from local sources such as Lowe's.

As with recent models of the Roomba, the Create is fully programmable through the on board serial port together with the iRobot Open Interface. Additionally, iRobot offers a Command Module which contains a microcontroller from extending the user's capabilities of programming the robot. The Command Module exposes 4 DB-9 "ePorts" which provide access to the I/O of the Atmel AVR ATmega 168 microcontroller. Available I/O pins include 4 digital, 6 analog input or digital, and 2 analog input. Additionally, the Command Module includes a USB port, a serial port, 2 user programmable LEDs, power control pins, and reset lines. The Command Module's microcontroller is programmed in C/C++ with the open source compiler gcc and free tools from AVR. The Command Module accessory is priced at $59.